1. How did you make plans? But seriously. HOW DID YOU MAKE PLANS. THIS REMAINS A MYSTERY.
I either called the person or we made plans face-to-face ahead of time for a specific time and place to meet.
2. How did you CANCEL plans? So you’re stuck in traffic and you’re not going to make it to dinner with your friend. How in the WORLD did you let this friend know? You didn’t have a cell phone. He/she didn’t have a cell phone. People must have gotten stood up on back then… a lot.
If I was running late, I arrived late. There was no way of letting the other person know other than finding a pay phone and calling them.
3. How did you know who was calling you before you picked up the phone? Did you just answer the phone without knowing who was going to be on the other end? That sounds so…
adventurous.
Hmmm...Let's see. I just picked up the phone like I do now and answer with, "Hello".
4. How did you rid of the fear that is calling people? I’m the girl who has skipped appointments and put off apartment hunting just because I have no interest dealing with phone conversations with someone other than my mom or boyfriend.
Ok, I admit, I could get a little nervous calling people back then (still do). But I just had to suck it up and deal with it. I'm not going to get the answers I need by avoiding it.
5. How did you find out information about people before you went on dates with them?Like, you couldn’t Google them… so how did you find out about them? Did you, like, have to talk to them to find out information? What if they lied? How could you trust them? HOW COULD YOU TRUST ANYONE?
Like the song says, "Getting to know you, getting to know all about you." You learn as you go along. That's how you make friends. If a relationship develops, so be it. DH and I started out as friends back in high school, then it developed into a steady relationship and then finally marriage.
6. How did you find people to date in the first place??? It’s hard enough to find someone to date online these days. How did you so many people find significant others back then?
If you were a teenager, then it was mostly from school or a friend. As I mentioned above, DH and I started out as friends back in high school. Our relationship slowly developed from there. We've been together for 28 years this summer. However, we've only been married for 15 as of last September.
7. How did you keep tabs on exes? Oh wait, you didn’t? That sounds smart. And also healthy. TOO BAD THE INTERNET HAPPENED.
Can't answer that one.
8. How did you keep tabs on what your entire graduating class from high school was doing? You mean that’s was reunions were for? I thought reunions were for seeing all those people you witnessed becoming fat on Facebook in person.
For me personally, I didn't want to. Being bullied, I just wanted to graduate and not look back. The only good thing about high school for me was DH. But for the most part, it was by reunions.
9. How did you look for jobs? And then apply to jobs? But seriously. This is a legit question. And when you did find jobs, how did you apply? Did you manually write cover letters? And resumes? THE HORROR.
It's called the "Help Wanted" ads in an actual newspaper. Other places to look were to actually go to the business and fill out an application, the unemployment office or even the local library.
10. How did your parents get in touch with you when you were out? This might have been the only perk of life before internet. Less annoying parents.
Just as a pp mentioned. We let our parents know where we were going, who we were hanging out and their home number. We also established a time that I needed to be home by. Back in those days, I could stay out all day and be home before dinner.
11. How did your survive waiting for meetings, appointments, trains, or anything without being able to pass time by pretending to look busy on your phone? Like how did you avoid eye contact with people? Did you READ A BOOK? Did you stare at the wall? Did you play with your fingers? Confused.
Reading a book or newspaper. Now there's a concept! I still bring a book or a word search with me.
12. How did you do ANYTHING at work before email? Now if the internet doesn’t work, offices basically shut down. But once upon a time internet didn’t work, so please someone tell me how that all went down.
LOL. I have to laugh at this one. When DH worked for the now almost defunct Radio Shack, the power went out. A younger employee didn't know how they could do business with no power. DH just looked at him and said, "We hand write the tickets." It was a completely foreign concept to the other employee.
13. How did you tell co-workers (or someone else you were meeting) that you were going to be late when you were stuck in traffic or stuck on some disabled subway car? Did you just risk getting fired all the time? Or was life better because people didn’t expect you to be in constant communication all the time. Probs that.
If you were late, you were late. Things happen that are beyond our control.
14. How did you sign up for classes at the gym? Did you have to like, physically GO to the gym and sign up by writing your name on a piece of paper hours or days before the class took place? Because that’s just, like, a huuuuge inconvenience.
Don't know about this one.
15. How did you know where you were or where you were going ever? Did you have carry around a real live map on you at all times? Did you also have a compass? Were you also John Smith in Pocahontas? I’m onto you…
Actual maps. I never did, mostly b/c I wouldn't drive a long distance without someone in the car with me who was better at directions than I was. Other than that, I would look it up on a map and then do what's called a "dry run" before-hand so I know where I was going. Oh, and for the record, I don't own a smart phone nor a GPS. Now I use Google Maps and print out the directions.
16. What did you have to do if you broke down on the side of the road? I know, I know. Payphones existed. But did they exist everywhere? Were you, like, the subject of a Lifetime movie where you had to walk the streets until you found a house and hope a rapist/murderer didn’t open the door after you knocked.
Thankfully, I never had that problem. But I'm guessing the answer would be to find a pay phone, or a business where I could call a tow truck. And yes, that would entail using a printed phone book. Specifically the yellow pages.
17. How did you always have change on you to use these pay phones? Did you really carry a bunch of cash and coins on you??? LOL, WHAT IS MONEY THAT IS NOT ON A CREDIT CARD.
If you didn't have any coins on you, you would have to call the person via collect. Meaning, the party you were calling would have to accept the charges.
18. How did you research anything for school? Did you have to go through the Encyclopedia? Do youths even know what Encyclopedias are? Because I doubt it. But anyway, how did you pass school?
It was called going to the "library". You know. A big building that has printed books in them. I would go and use the old card catalog to find out where the books were on the subject I was researching. Once I found a few books that would help, I would check them out and start taking notes at home. Oh, and my parents did have an encyclopedia set that I would also use. Afterwards I would, OMG, hand write my paper. Or, once I had my rough draft done, have my mom type it up for me since I didn't know how to at that time.
Speaking of typewriters. My mom had a manual one. When I got into high school, I took a typing class where we used an IBM electric typewriter. The only way to correct any mistakes was to use a small correction sheet or use a special erasure pencil with bristles on the end.
19. How did you find out about the weather? Did you have to watch The Weather Channel? Because, if so, that sucks.
Radio, local news and the paper. Same as it is today. Although, I do have to admit, having the weather available on the internet does come in handy. Instead of waiting for our local radio station to announce a school closure due to inclement weather, I can now go to their web site and scroll down the alphabetical list to see if our school district is listed.
20. How did you stay in touch with friends? Did you only have, like, 3 friends? Because that is a huge undertaking to keep in touch with any more than 3 people on a regular basis via a phone you could only use at home. I can barely stay in touch with people through texting and gchat and email and Facebook and Instagram and Twitter… Life must have been real hard back then, guys.
To quote Linus from Peanuts, "Oh brother." Besides the phone, we also had things called a pen, paper, an envelope and a stamp. Yes, we would actually write letters.
A few people mentioned party lines. I remember those and absolutely hated them. We didn't have them by me, but my aunt and uncle did in upstate NY. Boy was it a PItA when you needed to make a call. Whose "brilliant" idea was that anyway 
when you were looking for something else and you come across a big, empty square in the middle of the page! I think the only other alternative was black and white xerox copies from a library that cost quite a bit to make, IIR.
(I am a much better typist today.) So when my DH went back to school in the 90s and I discovered a word processor, I thought I died and went to heaven! 
(And I'll never forget our first home computer - a Mac; and America Online - even if it was ridiculously slow through the phone lines. We just couldn't believe what it could do!)
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